My current rig is a pos, and i dont want to break the bank. i was wondering if anyone had some suggestions on what would be a cheap way to stop my lag in wow (i know its hadware based, not internet speed). My rig is
MSI crappy board ( am2, 1 pci-e 2 ddr2s, and w/e)
1 512mb 4200 500 mhz ddr2(second ram slot doesnt work)
Sempron 3200+ oc'ed to 2.01 ghz
Radeon x800 video card,
thermaltake tr2 430 watt psu
2x 40gb ide hdds.(a WD and maxtor).


So, i should have a better board eventually( it was rma'd and is taking for ever to get back(not bought from MB)). and i dont know which would be the best upgrade, ram or cpu. i think the gfx card is good enough for 1152x648 res on wow.

ram first, cpu second, video card 3rd. but before you go for the video card, i might take a look at that power supply. but get a single 2GB stick of ram and you should notice a good difference.

Thanks monkey, ill see about getting more ram, hopefully someone can give me a deal off here

I would keep a sharp eye out on kijiji. You can do a little haggling sometimes and get pretty good deals on used gear.

I would suggest ( over time of course ) swapping out all your old hardware for a little newer, better and faster hardware. save some money - buy a component, then another. Sell some of what you have to get some money back and keep going until you are a few steps up.

It can take time and patience but within a short period of time you will be running a better machine for a fraction of the cost.

for example - theres an ASUS P5E on kijiji now listed for 100. There's also some older gear listed for next to nothing.

Agreed.

Other than your memory your system, although old, should be just fine for WoW. I've played it on a slightly slower system but the difference was that I had 1Gb of memory so I would think this is where you'll see the best increase for the least amount of money.

When my WoW has been open for a bit and sitting around Dalaran it can use over 1GB of memry by itself, I have no idea how you played with 512 meg!

Ram will give you the biggest boost initially. Went from 512mb to 1256mb and then to 2GB on the old laptop during TBC and there was a big jump. The new computer has 4GB and I get 60fps in dalaran all the time.

How the hell do you even move in Dalaran? The GF's computer had 512MB and that was impossible to move there. Throwing in a 1GB stick now allows her to move around after about 20s of loading up in Dalaran. Her system runs it fine now at low graphics but she doesnt mind that much (Old P4 2.8 and no idea of the video card{PCI slot only})

SideWinderDX

All this talk about hardware to get better performance in WoW is making me want to play WoW...

it's making me want to buy more hardware.

I've been sober for over a year now. When you guys talk about Dalaran the city I still think of that purple barrier in the northern Hillsbrad Foothills. It may be a minor personal victory for me but it's a victory none the less.

I been sober for quite a while now. Since the start of Ulduar.

Probably one of the best times to quit... I started playing again right before ToC, which actually kept me hooked for a bit longer since you could clear the place in 45min-1hour.

I've been WoW-free for about 3 months now...

It gives me strength to know there are others out there suffering from the same thing as me. Shall we meet every Wednesday?

I live close to ya now flama. I'll have a good amount of rum too.

If ya want we can chill, get drunk and scream at the television.

Besides that. I just started on a wow freeserver with a few thousand people.


If anyone quit and is interested in more casual gaming the addy is


www.neverendless-wow.com